'Close election'? This is wishful thinking, surely. Sportsbet has already paid out on a Coalition victory in SA after seeing the odds for it drop from 1.3/1 to 1.05/1. And the odds for a Coalition win in Tasmania are already up to 1.02/1. Labor is badly on the nose across the whole nation, and if it wasn't bolstered by the neo-Marxist left in the form of the Green party it would be even more clearly a thing of the past. Competence can function without compassion but -- as the Gillard-Rudd shambles so eloquently demonstrated -- compassion can't function without competence.

Posted by Jon J, Saturday, 15 March 2014 6:26:25 PM

OK, I was wrong -- it was close, and the outcome remains in doubt. Will SA be governed by a party that 63% of its citizens didn't give a primary vote to, or only 55%? It does show how desperately Labor relies on its unholy alliance with the Greens. And it's also a kick in the face for SportsBet, which as I said has paid off on a Coalition victory already. They are generally pretty good on political odds, so I wonder what went wrong here.

Posted by Jon J, Sunday, 16 March 2014 6:53:37 AM

I think what 'went wrong' was that while there were massive votes for the Liberals in some safe seats, which pushes up the overall Liberal vote, they didn't get enough of a swing in the seats that mattered. If they don't win government I hope they are not going to spend their time in opposition griping about their overall vote. There have been state and federal governments on both sides in Australia that have been in in power despite not winning the overall vote - it goes with our electoral system.

Posted by Candide, Sunday, 16 March 2014 8:32:10 AM

JonIt is bery very close And the fact Labor hasn't claimed a victory pretty well sums things up. I suspect they expect the prepoll are against them as they were recently in Griffith in Brisbane. They were very quick to claim victory there even though they had lost the primary count. Wait until the prepoll votes are counted. That I expect will be the difference in the Labor marginals.

Posted by imajulianutter, Sunday, 16 March 2014 12:27:45 PM

South Australians are no different to everyone else, they'll vote with their back pocket. As per usual the public servants will support the ALP gravy train & the workers i.e. those who put in an effort to earn their living will vote conservative. If the ALP gets back in then that means there are more snouts in the trough that is the public service.

Posted by individual, Sunday, 16 March 2014 12:37:36 PM

Don't know why I get accused of bias every time I write something someone doesn't agree with. I'm an habitual Liberal voter, so if I were biased in this case it would be towards hoping the Libs would win.